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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Bloatware inside of documents ...

    In my last post, I had the idea of revisiting an old project. I had forgotten just how bloated an XFDL file really is. I have spent most of the day working on refining my progress so far and making sure the stage is set for parts of the software that are not yet written. Basically, I spent the day planning and digging through the XML file contained within. I had forgotten just how bad it was in there.

    You would be surpassed at how little "real" data it actually has in it. There are many XML Nodes that contain no data at all, yet there they are. Taking up space. Making my job that much harder. Combine that with bad formatting and it really is like wading through a swamp.

    The document also has so many useless functions. Should the print button, or the next page button, or even the save file button really be hard coded into the document that can only be read on Windows? No! Its a waist. There are many more function and I am learning how they work in various forms, but it is very tedious work. I have been staring at code most of the day. I am glad I will be away for a few days to relax.

    There is an upside.

    The "buttons" and "toolbars" that are are coded into each document use a custom Java script engine that I have no wish to figure out. So, I will bypass it all. Simple functions such as "next page" and "print" I can more easily code directly into the viewer. Even the "attach files" function can be better handled by the viewer itself rather than having it coded into the document.

    I don't think i'll ever understand windows programmers.

    Until next time...

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